In Part 1, I discussed the plane crash of Oceanic Flight 815
and the magical healing power of the island it landed on. Now let's see what else was in store for the
survivors and their acquaintances during their stay. Although I'm a "Lost" fan, there were some
things about the show that drove me crazy as an engineer.
The Black Smoke
Monster
A frequent dilemma that the people on the island must deal
with is the black smoke monster. From
their first night on the island, the Oceanic survivors are haunted by the
cryptic stream of black smoke that rushes through the air and captures their
friends, who never again see the light of day.
While more is explained about this tormenter in the final season, it is
still quite a far-fetched idea to be taken as reality. As if this made any logical sense to begin
with, the monster takes on human form.
John Locke – a human whose dead body is present on the island – even
became the monster near the end of the series. Clearly, the properties of this mysterious "smoke"
would boggle the minds of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE).
A White Pickett…Sonar
Fence?
After Linus killed off the members of the DHARMA Initiative,
the Others move into the "village" that the DHARMA group had called home. Surrounding their region on the island was a
fence that used sonar technology to protect their living area. This invisible
fence could only be turned off with a code.
If someone (or something) passed through the barrier, the intruder would
begin to bleed and foam at the mouth (as demonstrated by Patchy when he was
pushed through by the crash survivors as an experiment).
While a fence like this may seem like the ultimate in home
security, don't rush out to your nearest home improvement store for parts to
build one just yet. Not only does it
seem like a difficult task to complete on an island with limited resources, but
Patchy appears again several episodes later – so the fence didn't even kill
him. If that had been my shielding
fence, I'd want my money back.
Duct Tape Fixes
Anything
I appreciate duct tape as much as the next guy and have even
used it as an anti-slip layer on the bottom of dance shoes. But one place that duct tape doesn't belong
is patching holes on a helicopter. When
Frank (the pilot) needs to have the fuel tank patched quickly so they can
escape the freighter before it blows up, someone throws a roll of duct tape to
Jack to patch the gaping hole where gas had been pouring out. Covering a pressurized fuel tank with duct
tape seems like a poor excuse for quick engineering. But luckily for the Oceanic Six, it does the
job.
In the final part of this series, I'll mention the movement
of the island, bomb detonation, and two characters' special abilities. What are you favorite unrealistic elements of
"Lost"?
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